Floor mops, also referred to as "dust mops" have been developed in several forms in the past for cleaning floors or like surfaces. For instance, so called "string mops" have been in common usage, such as the cotton or cotton/synthetic yarn products available from Tu-way American Group of Rockford, Ohio; Paragon Mop Co. of Charlotte, N.C.; the Zephyr Manufacturing Co. of Sedalia, Mo.; and Wilen Co., of Atlanta, Ga. Such floor mops are effective, but are relatively expensive and are therefore generally repeatedly reused and cleaned, and must eventually be repaired or replaced.
More recently, due to concerns over hygiene and safety in dealing with hazardous chemical or biological wastes that may be spilled or otherwise present on floors in locations such as hospitals and nursing homes, it has become highly desirable to provide a floor mop wherein the portion that contacts the floor is replaceable.
One such system that has been developed in the past is the 3M.TM. brand Doodleduster.TM. dusting system (the "Doodleduster System"), available from Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company ("3M") of St. Paul, Minn. The Doodleduster system (shown in FIGS. 1, 2A and 2B) includes a floor mop 10 having a mop head 12 and a handle 14 for manipulating the floor mop. The handle 14 is pivotally connected to the mop head by connection member 16, such as is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,850,533 entitled "Positional Universal Joint".
The structure of the mop head is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,225,998 entitled "Dust Mop Frame". The mop head includes a central portion 20 having a top surface 22, an opposing bottom surface 24, a longitudinal leading surface 26, a longitudinal trailing surface 28, and opposing end surfaces 30 and 32, respectively. Toggle assemblies 34 are mounted on top surface 22 of the central portion in spaced aligned pairs.
A rectangular segment 36 of dusting fabric is applied to the bottom surface 24 and the opposing longitudinal edges 38 and 40. The dusting fabric is engaged with the toggle assemblies 34 along opposing longitudinal edges to secure the dusting fabric to the mop head. One major surface 37 of the dusting fabric 36 is presented for encountering a surface (not shown) for cleaning the surface. The opposite major surface 39 faces bottom surface 24 of the mop head and, as shown in FIG. 2A, longitudinal edge 38 extends beyond leading surface 26 and opposing longitudinal edge 40 extends beyond trailing surface 28.
Toggle assembly 34 includes toggle member 44 hingedly connected (as at 46) by aligned hinge members projecting from the top surface 22 of the mop head. Toggle members 44 include a handle portion 50 for manipulating the toggle member to a first, open position (as at the right side of FIG. 2A) permitting the edge 38 of the cleaning fabric 36 to be placed over top surface 22; the toggle member 44 may then be shifted (by rotation in direction 52) to a second, closed position (as at the left side if FIG. 2A, and in FIG. 2B) to engage and retain the cleaning fabric on the mop head, by way of projecting tang 54. Tang 54 is aligned with groove 56 formed in top surface 22. Tang 54 and groove 56 cooperatively frictionally engages the cleaning fabric. A spring member 60 is mounted on the top surface 22 of the mop head to resiliently frictionally engage the toggle member and retain it in either the open or closed positions. The floor mop is used to clean a floor and when the cleaning capacity of exposed cleaning surface 37 is reached, the toggle assemblies are disengaged, the dusting fabric removed, reversed, reinstalled and the toggle assembles reengaged, enabling the floor mop to be used for further cleaning.
The Doodleduster.TM. system, while having its own utility, does exhibit certain limitations. As previously discussed, the handling of a used dusting fabric is particularly undesirable in environments where the handler may be exposed to chemical or biological hazards when handling the dusting cloth. 0f course, safety measures such as gloves or other like protective devices may be employed, but at the expense of increased cost and decreased convenience to the user.
Another problem is that an undesirably large portion of the dusting cloth may not be utilized at all to clean the floor, but is required merely to extend to reach the toggle assemblies 34 on the top surface 22 of the central portion 20 of the mop head to secure the dusting cloth to the mop head. This inefficiently utilizes the material of the dusting cloth and undesirably increases the cost of using the Doodleduster.TM. cleaning system.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a floor mop that more efficiently uses disposable cleaning material and minimizes contact with the contaminated cleaning material by the user.